My grandparents fled Cuba in the 1960’s on sponsored “Freedom Flights” thanks to the kindness of relatives in the USA and the willingness to enter an uncertain future with nothing but the clothes on their back. Both sets of grandparents came to America with several children each and not a scrap of their former lives, as the Cuban government forced them to leave it all behind — but they did have hope. The United States of America offered HOPE to Cuban immigrants escaping a politically repressive society where one faced constant threats of government harassment and imprisonment for any thought or action that didn’t fit within the parameters of what the government allowed.

My mother’s father had been an accountant for a successful small business in a thriving Cuban city. When Fidel Castro took power, my grandfather was forced to leave his white collar job for sugar cane fields hours away from his home. He was forced to leave his young family for days at a time to work dawn to dusk doing back breaking labor that he hated. My father’s father had been a profitable and happy farmer in the country when the local government told him that his animals no longer belonged to him, but to the community. He was forced to hide his milk cow in the hills so that his neighbors wouldn’t steal her milk. Both men decided that the best future for their families would be found on American soil, even though they’d be forced to give up everything and start again with nothing. Both men gave up the best years of their lives, working multiple jobs well past retirement age, to make sure that their children and their children’s children would have a free and profitable future.

Because of these two men, our family has succeeded. Today, the first generation of our family born on American soil belong to a successful and happy middle class America. We practice our faith freely, instead of the persecution they suffered under communism. We work the jobs that we have chosen, instead of being forced to do what the government tells us we must. We raise our families without interference from the local magistrates and we own our own private property without fear that the government could simply snatch it away from us. Make no mistake, had my grandfathers stayed in Cuba, today my family would be poor, ignorant of freedom, and our lives would be far more difficult.

Which brings me to Bernie Sanders. One of the Democrat candidates for President and an avowed socialist. Today, I have come to detest Bernie Sanders. A video of Sanders applauding Fidel Castro and the work he’d done in Cuba has surfaced and it shows the Democrat candidate applauding Castro’s “reforms” in Cuba for having “totally transformed society” there.

Let me be clear, Castro “transformed” society in Cuba by murdering thousands, imprisoning tens of thousands, and trampling the innate God-given rights of millions. Fidel Castro is a monster and the communist regime he birthed is monstrous. Bernie Sanders is either evil or an utter fool. Not only would I never vote for him, I am disgusted by him and his supporters.

In 1961, [America] invaded Cuba, and everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world.

All the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro. They forgot that he educated their kids, gave their kids health care, totally transformed society.

You know, not to say Fidel Castro and Cuba are perfect – they are certainly not – but just because Ronald Reagan dislikes these people does not mean to say the people in these nations feel the same.